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Charitable giving at large has tumbled by nearly 75%, CEO says

Muscular Dystrophy Association CEO Lynn O’Connor Vos joins Yahoo Finance’s Akiko Fujita to discuss how the nonprofit sector is coping amid the coronavirus outbreak.

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AKIKO FUJITA: As donations dry up, a recent survey found that that's starting to take a toll on these organizations. Out of more than 750 nonprofits that were surveyed, 18% said they had already furloughed or laid off workers. More than 40% said they expected additional cuts over the next several months. I want to bring in our next guest here.

Lynn O'Connor Vos is the CEO of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and she joins us from Stamford, Connecticut today. Lynn, it's good to see you. You know, we have really seen the toll this has taken on the nonprofits, but you point to a number here that I think is quite staggering. Charitable giving has plummeted nearly 75% during this pandemic. How has that affected your organization?

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LYNN O'CONNOR VOS: Well, thank you for having me today. I'm representing the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and we're just one of the voluntary health organizations out there. And we fill an enormous gap between government funding and corporate funding, really servicing thousands and thousands of people who have chronic disease. The MDA, specifically we're in the neuromuscular disease category, and with our-- the drop in revenues, which has been substantial, our revenues are down about 66%, most of our events were cancelled, and that's where we do most of our fundraising. And that's really just put an enormous dent in our ability to increase the impact and service the patients and keep our research going.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, let's talk about that then because what we're seeing over the last two months is obviously going to have a knock-on impact months down the line as well. As you look to the services that you offer through your organization, what's going to have to be cut as a result of these donations drying up?

LYNN O'CONNOR VOS: Well, you know, we've been laser focused on keeping our mission alive. And so our organization has an enormous number of people out in the field who also fundraise. Given the collapse of the event business, we've had to furlough about 55% of our employees. And what we're trying to do is with whatever revenues that we are picking up-- through plan giving, through individual giving, and through some very good online work-- we're propping up our mission.

And so we service-- we treat about 50,000 patients in our clinics. We also sponsor millions of dollars worth of research. And so we're doing whatever we can to kind of scour the marketplace and figure out how to fund our research. Because as you say, with the delays now, you're going to see the impact over the next five years. We are just on the brink of curing several of our diseases, and the research has to continue. So that's really where our emphasis has to be, and that hopefully will be the last place we have to cut.

AKIKO FUJITA: In terms of seeking additional funding, you know, we obviously have the government's stimulus bill, the federal government stimulus but also stimulus on the state level as well. How much of that have you been able to tap into as a nonprofit group?

LYNN O'CONNOR VOS: So we were able to tap into the PPE, which obviously is covering payroll. The challenge you have in the nonprofit world is we really can't bring back those employees within eight weeks because we don't have a balance sheet and we don't have our revenue streams quite back up to date. But that certainly has given us the bridge loan that we need.

What's interesting about the foundations is, you know, COVID-19 has been an absolute disaster for everyone. And most of the funds are really going for food, shelter, and water right now. Unfortunately, many organizations aren't seeing the health care organizations as frontline, and we really are on the frontline. We're treating patients. And so that's really our message right now is don't forget about us.

The voluntary health organizations are really filling in an enormous gap, in terms of care and services. And when you're out there thinking about who to give money to, don't forget about the Muscular Dystrophy Association and others, like the American Heart Association, because we really do serve a vital function, particularly with COVID-19. Our patients are at the highest risk, and they really can't afford to get this disease-- this virus, or this could really kill them.

AKIKO FUJITA: While we've seen some activity resume, the reality is there's not going to really be a normal for several months, even looking into next year. What are the fundamental changes, as an organization, you are thinking you have to make, given the timeline of a vaccine and the timeline of some kind of resolution on the pandemic front?

LYNN O'CONNOR VOS: Well, we've got to lean in more on major donors. We've really got to identify those individuals who really believe in our cause and see if they can support us right now. We're kind of a lucky organization. I've just been with them a couple of years, but the Muscular Dystrophy Association invented the fundraising model with the telethon, you'll recall, Jerry Lewis on there every Labor Day weekend for years and years.

So these are the kinds of things we're looking at right now. Is that's something we should do this Labor Day? Should we have a telethon again? How can we really stimulate consumer interest the way we had had consumer interest over the years? And so it's going to require out-of-the-box thinking. You know, the tried and true methods of fundraising, the events, that's going to take, as you say, a long time to get back.

And one of our biggest funders-- our fundraisers out there are the firefighters. We do a program called fill the boot, which you might have seen with people standing in traffic and filling the boot. Obviously, that's not coming back anytime soon, so we're having to say, OK, well, can go online? Can we do a virtual Fill The Boot? Can we do a virtual gala? And we've been quite successful with some of our virtual activities. And that's really what it's going to take, I think.

We're going to probably look at this as an opportunity-- we are, at MDA-- to say, we're going to come out of this stronger. And why? Because we were more innovative. We're leaning in, and we're investing more. We're adding more technology. We're streamlining where we can using Salesforce. And you know, we're coming out of this stronger. However, there's a huge urgency right now to give.

AKIKO FUJITA: Lynn O'Connor Vos, we wish you the best of luck. Appreciate you joining us today with the Muscular Dystrophy Association.